by Perrin Briar
The snake glared down at her with its big yellow gleaming eyes, its lips peeling back, savoring the meal to come. Its long forked tongue slipped around its lips and made delicious movements. Aaron threw rocks at the snake, but it wasn’t to be distracted. Not this time.
This time it intended on enjoying the kill.
Cassie shuffled back on her hands. The snake rolled its scales over her legs, pinning her down. She was doomed. Cassie’s hands came to something sharp in a gap in the nest. She didn’t know what it was. She seized it. It felt hard, with a razor’s edge.
The snake threw itself on Cassie, who brought her arm up in self defense. The snake lurched back, body writhing in agony.
Cassie looked at the sharp implement in her hand. It was bloody along its sharp point. The snake thrashed, bleeding from one eye. Cassie rolled out from under it as soon as she felt the snake’s weight leave her.
“What is it doing?” Aaron said
“Its eye,” Cassie said. “I think I stabbed him in the eye.”
“Now we need to finish it off,” Aaron said. “It’s not going to go over the side if we don’t. We have to push it over.”
Cassie and Aaron ran forward, slowing down as they got close. They dashed forward and hurled their body weight at the creature, sending it sprawling over the side and into the mist and unflinching mountain below.
Aaron heaved a sigh of relief. He sat with his back against the nest.
“I’m so glad that’s over,” he said. “I never want to see another living thing ever again.”
Cassie sat beside him.
“What was it that saved you anyway?” Aaron said. “The thing you found?”
Cassie held up her hands. Quill-like needles stuck out from between her fingers, sharp and carved to vicious points.
“They’re darts,” Aaron said. “Hunting darts, if I’m not mistaken.”
“How do you know that?” Cassie said.
“I’ve seen them often enough on TV and in movies,” Aaron said.
“Hunting darts?” Cassie said. “But that means…”
“There are other people in this world,” Aaron said. “Or used to be.”
12.
BRYAN AND ZOE jogged down a dirt track that wound through a thick copse. They needed to get across to the far side of the world, a distance they couldn’t see beyond the rolling green hills and mountains. They didn’t even really know which direction they were meant to be heading in, and wouldn’t have known what to look for even if they had.
They slowed to a walk. They bent down to sup from a stream, satiating their thirst. It looked clean enough, which was the best they could do under the circumstances.
“I’ve been thinking about the bird we saw,” Zoe said. “There’s something I don’t understand. The size of it, the sheer weight. It shouldn’t be able to fly and stay in the sky the way it does. Its wings are large, but I don’t think they’re big enough to support it.”
“It’s a bird,” Bryan said. “Why shouldn’t it be able to fly?”
“There’s a critical mass that prohibits birds from growing any larger than a certain size, from being any bigger than the laws of physics allow,” Zoe said. “It’s that size we see in the bird. But this bird seems to surpass that.”
“So what are you saying?” Bryan said.
“I’m saying there’s something else at work here,” Zoe said. “Something that explains how a bird of that size is capable of remaining airborne.”
“Maybe you just got your calculations wrong,” Bryan said.
Zoe shrugged her shoulders.
“Maybe,” she said.
Bryan looked up at the distant horizon, at the wall they were trailing, running to the left of their position. Somewhere out there were Aaron and Cassie. And they were waiting for them.
“It seems wherever we go, whatever we do, we end up losing one or more of the kids,” Zoe said.
“It’s part of growing up, I guess,” Bryan said. “They were always going to head away from us, leave us. We were never going to be there for them forever.”
“I know,” Zoe said. “But we could have been there for them till they were safe.”
“That’s not our decision, no matter how much we wish we were there to be the ones to lead them through all this,” Bryan said. “But really, there’s no way for us to be in control. They just have to fly and find their own feet.”
“I just wish they didn’t have to lose their feet before having to find them,” Zoe said. “And it would be so much easier if there was a sign or someone to come here and just tell us where we’re meant to be heading. But there’s no one in this God forsaken place!”
They crested the mound. Zoe’s eyes widened in shock. She reached out unconsciously with her hand and pulled Bryan back like a mother with a child at a busy intersection, dragging him to the ground and holding him there.
“What are you doing?” Bryan said.
“Sh!” Zoe said.
She crawled forward and peered over the top of the small hillock they were now perched on. On the other side was a large facility, something like a mining operation, Zoe thought. They were bringing down hammers and axes, hacking at the rocks and fissures, carving through the land.
There was the soft clink clink clink of metal instruments on hard rock. The hard, tanned bodies of the miners were of a similar appearance. They were dark skinned and black haired. Their bodies were further darkened with a layer of dirt and grime. There was a general sense of resignation, but they worked hard and didn’t notice Bryan and Cassie there.
It was one of the strangest and yet most alluring things Zoe had ever seen. Red hot lava dribbled from the cracks in the wall and formed a stream across the landscape. The workers were using the flowing magma as hot coals to pump heat into forging their tools.
“So much for people not living here,” Bryan said.
“Hard not to feel a little stupid now, isn’t it?” Zoe said.
“We need to approach them, speak to them,” Bryan said. “If anyone knows where our kids are, they will.”
“Our record of asking for help hasn’t been too great so far,” Zoe said. “We need to be cautious. Every time we speak with someone in one of these places, we end up getting in trouble for it.”
“Then how do you suggest we go about doing it?” Bryan said.
“Direct was the way I was raised,” Zoe said. “We don’t have time to play around. Plus, how else are we meant to outwit them? We can’t. We just have to ask.”
“We should be careful about who we approach,” Zoe said. “That way we can at least control who our point of contact will be.”
“Yes,” Bryan said. “Good thinking. We can always pass ourselves off as random strangers just passing through.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for both of us to walk up to them,” Zoe said. “Just in case something happens, one of us can rescue the other.”
“Aren’t we full of good ideas today?” Bryan said. “Who shall we approach?”
Zoe peered over the verge. Both men and women worked the mine, hefting heavy pickaxes and slamming them into the hard stony earth. It wasn’t comforting. Then she turned to look at the others working different jobs. Some were cooking food, with heavy clouds of steam billowing forth. They were laughing and joking with one another. Better, but they worked with sharp knives and boiling water. Nope.
Finally, she came to the pigeon chested men and short women working in the river, washing clothes. They would have strong arms and powerful muscles, but they were also chatting, bent over and scrubbing at the clothes.
“Them,” Zoe said. “They’re who I’ll approach.”
“You’ll approach?” Bryan said. “Why don’t I approach them?”
“Because you’re bigger and stronger than me,” Zoe said. “If I need to be rescued, you’re the one to do it.”
“That sounds like me,” Bryan said. “Mr. Rescuer.”
Zoe took a deep breath and stood up.
; “No time like the present,” she said.
She walked toward the river. She got within a dozen yards before one of them caught sight of her. They stood up, hands bracing their arched backs.
Bryan couldn’t help the fluttering feeling in his stomach. Why did he feel like everything was going to go bad? Oh yeah, that’s right. Because it always did.
13.
AARON AND CASSIE lay on their backs staring up at the sky. The colors were faded monochrome. There was little they could see, and that was fine with them. The stars seemed larger here than they were on the surface. It was nice they had something to distract themselves with, something to keep their eyes and mind focused on, something they didn’t have to worry about protecting themselves from—at least for a little while.
“Do you think we’ll ever get out of here?” Aaron said to Cassie.
“I don’t know,” Cassie said. “But I do know there isn’t much chance of us not trying to get out of here. If we’re not always trying to escape and get away I don’t think our parents could live with it.”
“Could you?” Aaron said.
“No,” Cassie said. “But I suppose if we came across somewhere that wasn’t too bad, somewhere that wasn’t all that different to the way we used to live in the countryside somewhere, I suppose I might be okay living there.”
“The countryside?” Aaron said. “I never pictured you as a country bumpkin.”
“Neither did I, before coming here,” Cassie said. “But I suppose we always discover things about ourselves, don’t we? That’s the only way we can develop and explore.”
“How do you think Jim is getting on?” Aaron said.
“He’ll be fine,” Cassie said. “He’s not the type of person to let anything get in his way. He’ll achieve what he wants.”
“Jim as king,” Aaron said, shaking his head. “Hard to imagine, isn’t it?”
“Not as hard as some, I suppose,” Cassie said. “He did have a certain bearing about him.”
“Maybe great people are born the way they are,” Aaron said.
“No,” Cassie said, taking Aaron by the hand. “They’re forged in difficult situations, just like the ones we’re going through.”
Aaron looked at his hand held in Cassie’s. He smiled at her.
“I’ve been thinking,” Cassie said. “If we can’t escape the nest, then the least we can do is get the risk away from us.”
She turned to look at the eggs. They were sitting there idly, doing nothing but minding their own business. And yet right then they incubated the greatest threat to their survival.
“What do you want to do with them?” Aaron said.
Cassie approached the eggs and put a hand to a shell, moving from one to the next. She knocked on them. There was an answer, a hollow thud on the other side. A crack formed in the egg she’d knocked on, a long one that reached from top to bottom.
“We have to leverage them over the side,” Cassie said. “We don’t have much time.”
“I’m not sure…” Aaron said.
“What aren’t you sure about?” Cassie said. “If we don’t do something, they will hatch and eat us.”
“But they’re chicks,” Aaron said.
Cassie gave Aaron a flat look.
“I swear, if you’re making the point that these ‘little’ chicks will be too cute to kill, I’ll hit you,” she said.
Aaron smiled sheepishly.
“You’re right,” he said. “Us before them.”
“Finally, common sense prevails,” Cassie said.
14.
BRYAN KNEW they were safe when Zoe turned and pointed in his direction. She wouldn’t have knowingly put him in danger. She must have felt confident with her situation to have revealed his location to them like that. But he didn’t get to his feet. She might not have been pointing to him at all, but at something in the distance.
Then some of the miners approached Zoe, and she again pointed in Bryan’s direction. The locals approached him. The last thing he wanted was to look like a man too afraid to face them on his feet, and so he edged back and rolled up onto the balls of his feet, looking, he liked to think, like a tiger about to pounce at any moment.
The locals showed no sign of alarm as they looked Bryan up and down. The man standing before the other miners was thick limbed and strong, with a broad chest and dark hair that hung limply over his eyes.
“You’re Bryan?” the miner said.
“I am,” Bryan said.
“I’m Sturgess,” the miner said. “Your wife wishes for you to come join her.”
His voice was deep and gruff, but kind and appraising. It was not in the harsh tones Bryan had come to associate with the pirates of the last world. Bryan stood up and followed the mining men and women back in Zoe’s direction.
They followed him, giving him some space. It wasn’t how a prisoner would be trailed, but someone treated with respect. By the time he got close to Zoe he could hear her laughing and joking with the locals.
The children seemed fascinated with Zoe’s clothes, pulling on them and touching the soft fabric. She was currently wearing an amalgamation of clothing from both the surface and other worlds. They seemed fascinated with how delicate and soft they were—despite them not being all that soft after their ordeal.
“So, you’re not a Merchant?” a local woman said.
“A what?” Zoe said.
“A Merchant,” the woman repeated. “One of the elite.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Zoe said.
“How are we doing here, Zoe?” Bryan said cautiously.
The locals’ eyes flicked to Bryan, their eyes lighting up. They touched his clothing too. Bryan held out his arms to be touched. He glanced every few seconds at Zoe. What was going on here?
“I was just telling them our story, about where we came from,” Zoe said. “I told them our children were taken by a pair of giant birds.”
“Do they know where they went?” Bryan said.
“Yes,” Zoe said. “They’ll draw us a map and show us where their nest is. But they say they can only be vague. They’ve only heard of the location in stories and myths passed down from their ancestors.”
“It’s better than what we know right now,” Bryan said.
“That’s what I said,” Zoe said.
“Come,” the local woman said “You must be hungry, thirsty and tired from your long journey. Come with us.”
“Thank you,” Zoe said. “But we’d rather be on our way.”
Bryan pressed his lips together. He wasn’t much in the mood for turning down a hot meal, no matter what it consisted of.
“The mountain, and your children, will not be going anywhere soon,” Sturgess said. “Rest, and you’ll better serve them when you are strong.”
Zoe still didn’t look convinced, and she opened her mouth to argue. She was beaten to the punch.
A shout went up and the locals turned to look at the great fissure they’d been working on. They left Bryan and Zoe and ran to join their fellow miners, who were heaving on long ropes attached to something inside the mine. They heaved and pulled, dust and rocks rolling down either side of the wide opening. Tears of lava followed.
The miners heaved with each tug, pulling at something inside that clearly did not want to be removed. Then there was a loud crack, and a huge boulder, about the size of a mansion house, slid forward. Amidst the dust and debris and shouting voices came another crack, and the whole boulder slid forward.
The boulder was black, but shimmered with a faint emerald green sheen, with a light that didn’t seem like it emanated from this world.
And then something strange happened.
Bryan had noticed it a few minutes earlier, when the ground shifted beneath his feet. He’d taken it for the boulder’s juddering effects on the landscape, but as the boulder slid toward the opening, it came to a stop. The ground didn’t feel like it was moving away from him, but instead pulling him forward, toward the giant rock.
> And when he looked down, Bryan saw the dirt and mud and little rocks jittering against the rubber soles of his shoes. He didn’t quite know what to make of that. They shivered and shook, dancing in the direction of the giant boulder, as if it were the Pied Piper.
The little rocks picked up speed and rolled across the ground in its direction, before finally leaping up and flying toward the giant boulder.
And they weren’t the only things.
The locals’ clothing fluttered, snapping in a non-existent wind. Their tools, some made of metal, others wood, also crept forward, hovering toward the boulder, scuttling across the surface, before leaving the ground and making solid contact with the rock.
The locals, used to such goings on, pulled on cords they kept around their sleeves and pant legs to keep them in place and not have to press them down and keep them flat.
“What is going on here?” Zoe said.
“I have no idea,” Bryan said.
“Is it magnetic?” Zoe said.
“How can it be?” Bryan said. “The things it’s attracting aren’t only made of metal.”
“Then what is it?” Zoe said.
“I’m sure I have no idea,” Bryan said. “But whatever it is, it’s powerful.”
“Maybe it’s made from the same stuff as the rocks we saw earlier,” Zoe said. “The floating ones.”
“Maybe,” Bryan said. “But I don’t see how that helps us.”
The locals dropped the ropes and cheered, fists pumping the air.
“They’re certainly happy about something,” Zoe said.
Sturgess broke away from the other miners, a triumphant broad smile on his face, and approached Bryan and Zoe.
“Have you decided to stay?” he said.
Zoe pressed her lips together.
“Only for a short while,” she said.
“How long have you been mining here?” Bryan said.